St Michael's Church of England High School

When I was there usless with special needs.Example kids with behavioral problems were not delt with and just screamed at .Sacked most of the support staff .As Peter Kay jokes teachers with a memorey loss.What is you name?,who are you ?,what year are you in? ,Who is your personal tutor? A MILLION TIMES A WEEK.YOU GO OUT no we have names.LIED said you could only do A levels at college nosence you could do anything from A levels to courses with low or no GCSE.Only a few of the teachers got kids the rest stress heads

I attended this school and finished June 23rd 2022 (best day of my life). The school is ridiculous. I have alot of health issues mental and physical and school where in no way shape or form understanding of this. In march 2022 I spent over a month in hospital for an infection and got told every day that "school is a mandatory requirement". Like I didn't know. Getting to the end of school was one of the hardest things I ever did. I planned and almost successfully dropped out at the end of Y10, take my mocks as my actual GCSE's and take a job with my mum. I had numerous referrals to Shaftesbury (6 in total) all of which school did not sign off on therefore I could not go. There are a few nice teachers all of which i would like to name as they are absolutely lovely, however I don't want to involve them in this. The nice teachers (as other people have said, are all young). I am also autistic and had quite a few meltdowns in school, all of which they would yell at me over making me worse, to the point I would end up physically ill ending up having to be sent home which they would complain over doing. I got an after school for throwing up and accused of 'skyving'. I was trying to get my medication to STOP me throwing up. As other people have also mentioned the uniform rules are ridiculous. I shaved my hair off for charity in year 8 and had to email school about it and then after that had to sit in internal exclusion for 4 days because it was 'too short', yet they promote charity work. They say short and dyed hair causes issues in the workplace, along with piercings. I currently have shoulder length hair and it is dyed bright colours, and also numerous facial piercings. I also have a job in a primary school working on Wednesdays and after school. This is a primary school. PRIMARY SCHOOL, WORKING WITH KIDS!? In real life nobody cares? This school is absolutely delusional its unreal. Even if you are academically smart, I don't think you will do well in this school. Not because you're not smart. But because this school will absolutely rip, you, apart. Even if you get a good grade, it isn't good enough. Someone I was and am close friends with was on the school council and asked for LGBTQ+ education. He was told it was "too sensitive". However in Year 8 we spent 6 weeks on FGM, showed diagrams and detailed the different stages and also in year 9 also shown how to put a condom on a fake pink penis. If that isn't 'sensitive', why is LGBTQ+ education? They have a place called 'plc' which means personal learning centre where you can go if you need some time out for your mental health, if you're upset, or overwhelmed. Even if you are crying your eyes out, they won't let you in. They also began locking it during lesson, you wouldn't be allowed in internal exclusion because that's for "the bad kids", despite the fact most of them weren't even bad they were struggling and needed help. You would have nowhere to go and made to sit through lesson as though that would help, incase you're wondering, it doesn't. The school food choice is ridiculous. Most the fruit is out of date (grapes sour, apple slices going brown), the sandwiches would be soggy, panini's either barely cooked or undercooked. There was also pretty much no options for people with intolerances/allergies to things such as gluten and dairy and people who are vegan. Even if you spoke to the school staff and dinner staff and specifically requested, it wasn't provided. Just as I left school (thank god). They put windows on ALL the doors in the school building. Every, single, door. Yes this includes bathrooms. I often argued with the teachers over this as I was fed up with it, their reasoning was "why would you need privacy in school". I also got told by one of the teachers (who was a wellbeing teacher), during a panic attack " you cant go anywhere in this school without being watched or followed". The toilets were often locked during lesson and towards the end of me leaving school during break and dinner. Now if you need the toilet you need the toilet, you can't help that, if youre on your period and need to change whatever you're using, you can't help that! During break and dinner a teacher would stand by the unisex toilets, they would litterally tell at people to 'hurry up', now if you're on the toilet you can't exactly hurry up. If you're washing your hands, especially during COVID, you can't exactly hurry up. As previously mentioned I have alot of physical health issues which got worse as I got older (especially in high school, because of puberty and just generally growing up). I physically am not allowed to do PE due to a heart condition I have which makes me faint, no matter how much evidence I showed to school (including a letter written by my cardiologist) it was never enough. Times are changing and this school is stuck in the 1970's. You forget your planner? Lunch time detention. Forget a subject book? Lunch time detention. Even 30seconds late to lesson? Lunch time detention. The lunch time detentions may I add went on for the entire lunch. They SUPPOSEDLY ended at 1:30, so you would have time to get food. No. They finished at 1:50 which is also the end of dinner. And also, for break and dinner, you are always, without fail sent out 5 minutes late and sent in 5 minutes early. So for break you only have maybe 5-10 minutes if you're lucky. This school is just chaos and not the good kind. They do not deal with any issues going on. I was bullied in year 8 and the person doing it played victim and got believed. I reported it practically every, single, day, for months. Nothing. The person once? I got yelled at and then told of for yelling back because I was so annoyed that I got ignored. I dont know if by saying this, it will get my review taken down so I will say it as briefly and in as minimal detail as possible. I had attempted suicide in school. I was taken to my head of year (I had been throwing up) and had to tell him what I had taken. He laughed at me because it was "stupid and won't do anything". I was throwing up and in so much pain. Another situation is I had planned to attempt suicide in school on another occasion in Y10. I got in trouble. Before I actually went through with it I went to a teacher and told them. They yelled at me and did nothing. Didn't tell my parents, any other staff, CAMHS, nobody. I struggled with Self-harm all throughout highschool and on a non-uniform day I wore jeans (no rips) and a t-shirt with a dog on it. I didn't bring a jacket as it was a hot day, my arms where COMPLETELY healed (I need to emphasise completely). I was sent to my head of years office and made to wear a jacket as it was inappropriate. This was a step I had taken to try and become more comfortable with my scars, something that won't just magically disappear. I ended up having a meltdown as I was trying to help myself and failed. I hid in the toilets for two hours because I knew if I went to anyone I would be yelled at. I calmed down after two hours and came out of the toilets and ran into a teacher (he was absolutely lovely and by far one of my favourites) who could see I had been crying. He had a lesson so he took me to wellbeing, and as I had predicted, I got yelled at. I was a child, and my friends at the time were also litteral children and they provided me more support than any staff at Saint Michael's. They also do not care about out of school achievements. I (during year 11), got my Level 1 in mandarin Chinese. I was also picked on and laughed at by one of the SENDCO staff, for learning mandarin. The final thing (I hope because this is becoming an essay), my access arrangements for my GCSE's got messed up. I had a letter from an occupational therapist and paediatric rheumatologist saying I had to type for long written exams (litterally RE, English language (2 hour exam may I add) and English literature). English and RE where my best subjects. I left school with 4's in English and 8 in RE. In Y11 I was getting straight 7's in English and I am so upset over my grade as I can do better, I physically could not write fast enough. I was also supposed to get 25% extra time and rest breaks (as written in the letter by the occupational therapist). I got none of them.

Please, don't send your kids hear. If youre reading some reviews and thinking "well my kid needs some good discipline", this school is not discipline. This school is torcher. I don't know anybody who went here and had a positive experience (seriously). Please do not send your kids here. This school NEEDS to be shut down.

It’s not very good, the only thing that is is viewed as important is grades, they tell us they care about our mental well-being, but the school remains well known by cahms as a school with some of the worst mental health In students. Some teachers are really great at teaching but some can just put stuff up on the board to be copied. The food sold at lunch is abysmal, never anything remotely healthy. To top this off they foster a false sense of what a work place environment is like, by punishing severely for being literal seconds late after the bell, taking away our whole lunch and if it happens twice in a week our Friday evening and this is a so called “preparation for life”. The school may be academically outstanding but based on student well being it is a very poor school to attend.

Absolutely twisted school. Just left this year, and if you want your child to come out of the school experience not wanting the sweet release of death do not choose this school, especially if your child is special needs or LGBTQ. The school has a motto of 'Celebrating uniqueness' but you all must look the exact same or act the exact same, or else you'll be disciplined. They only care about the grades you get, and as a result of them doing nothing to actually help me with my mental health it spiraled to a point where I was having weekly, possibly daily, panic attacks - which I can guarantee you now, no child should go through that. Absolutely rampant with homophobia and transphobia too, only felt safe in the classrooms of teachers I trusted. Must say, I did love all the teachers I had in year 10-11 but they were nearly all young and the young ones do tend to be lovely. They just want to push you through and get you good grades to look good (and uniform. FAR too much focus on uniform.), without realising that mental health condition directly affects grades. Was also told they wouldn't allow LGBTQ education in tutorial as it was 'too sensitive' - bear in mind we saw a diagram of fgm in tutorial in year 8. Absolutely torturous school, please don't send your child there.
Adding a bit more to my experience, there's a guy who still goes there that sexually assaulted multiple people and it got completely swept under the rug. He got minimal punishment and the whole cast of beauty and the Beast was terrified of him. A teacher also commented on my 13 year old friends breasts on a D of E trip too and was known for rolling up skirts. Think he still goes there. Messed up.

Awful trash everywhere they pick on kids who are less rich and do nothing about bullying